Civil society criticizes opposition

The Peoples Intellectual Assembly (PIA) criticized the Leader of the Opposition R. Sampanthan and Members of the Joint Opposition for conducting themselves in a manner anathema to democracy.

Joint Secretary of the PIA, Attorney-at-Law Chrishmal Warnasuriya said that at present, there was no cogent Opposition to the hybrid governing party.

Members of the JO are espousing and extolling the values of MP Mahinda Rajapaksa and are in favour of forming a new party with Rajapaksa while unfortunately Sampanthan is primarily focused on issues of the North and the East, he explained, adding that the ultimate result was that there was no cogent, democratic national Opposition in place.
He added that professionals, academics, social workers and religious figures should be more active in the movement to realize the wishes of the people who voted for a change on January 8, 2015.

He also highlighted that certain individuals and groups among those who had supported the silent revolution on January 8, 2015 had presently instead of challenging the Government resorted to protecting the incumbent government and/or providing excuses on behalf of the government as to why the change had not materialized.

He opined that the Right to Information Act had a complex model which instead of furthering the freedom of information enshrined and guaranteed in the Constitution in Article 14A through the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, instead diminished, downgraded and restricted it.

The PIA hailed the recent appointment of Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy as the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

“People query as to why the change is not seen in terms of democracy, good governance and the rule of law.(RLJ)